Roger Water Us + Them review - a stunning audio visual experience

Just as Pink Floyd helped redefined the live rock and roll live experience, Roger Waters Us + Them does much the same for concert movies in our new immersive entertainment age.

Recorded at the Ziggo Drome arena in Amsterdam, on the European leg of Water’s 2017-2018 Us + Them tour, it’s a stunning audio visual experience.

The tour saw Waters perform a total of 156 shows to 2.3 million people throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and beyond. But I’ll wager none of them would have seen the show quite like this. Shot on RED digital cameras, it’s a 4K multichannel feast that takes live music to a new level.

Directed by Waters and Sean Evans (the duo previously worked together on Roger Waters The Wall), Us + Them is ecstatically cinematic. It makes wonderful use of its wide aspect ratio, shifting to an even wider framing for some of the narrative material.

The show opens and closes with tracks from The Dark Side of the Moon, via The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here, and Waters’ last album, Is This The Life We Really Want? The set list will be familiar to many, but Time still made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and listen out for a standout version of Another Brick in the Wall.

The soundmix is quite sensational. Us + Them uses Dolby Atmos more effectively for music than any other content I've heard before. It doesn't just reserve height for arena ambience and crowd noise. Songs are mixed almost equally front and high. The band looms, the sound is a tidal wave, and the clarity and precision is astonishing. It also makes thunderous use of deep bass. This movie is a sonic masterwork.

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Staging is similarly breath-taking, from the emergence of Battersea Power Station from flashing cubes that descend from the rafters (projection mapping is eerily good), through to the iconic, prismatic climax.

And, inevitably, the show is heavily political. It bludgeons its message home and Waters doesn't mince words, with Donald Trump providing a fresh new focus for Money.

Roger Waters Us + Them will be screened in cinemas across the UK (and globally) on October 2 and October 6 only. Tickets are on sale now from rogerwatersusandthem.com.

If you’ve grown up loving Pink Floyd, you absolutely have to see it. Even if you haven’t you still need to experience this…

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